Hello and welcome to Adorama TV I'm Ruth Medjber and today I'm going to...
...be taking a look at some of Westcott's soft boxes.
The Rapid Box Octa XL...
...and the Zeppelin Para-59.
I'm a big, big fan of soft boxes, I mainly work in the studio...
...or out on location but mostly I shoot portraits. The great thing about soft boxes...
...is that they gave a beautifully soft diffuse light that when it falls on people...
...just looks absolutely divine.
The Zeppelin Para-59 is a beast of a softbox...
...when you put it into a studio you'll see exactly what I mean.
59 stands for 59 inches and that is at its widest point across. To give you a little...
...bit of perspective, I'm 62 inches tall I'm trying to maneuver this it just...
...looks a little bit ridiculous. Now personally working in my studio space might not...
...be the perfect location for it but anytime that I'm going to book a larger...
...studio for group shots or big corporate events then this is definitely the softbox I want to use...
...ideally I'd love to have this on a boom arm. I'd love to also position it...
...above my subjects in front of them so that you get this beautiful soft spread...
...of life that fall onto them because of the size of this softbox you could...
...easily shoot very large group portraits with them. For me that means I can do a...
...big band of musicians or a group of rugby players, football players, dancers...
...anything like that and really you just have to use one light. It's so, so, so perfect.
So what I did when I first got this soft box is, I put it straight onto...
...my Bowens kit. Now my standard Bowens kit is a two hundred Gemini range which is...
...quite low power when you think about it in the grand scheme of things.
I initially thought that it wasn't going to be powerful enough for the size of this...
...soft box but I was so, so, so wrong.
What this softbox does is uses...
...every little bit of available light available...
...that you're putting through it and maximize it to its full...
...potential so I was getting this beautifully even spread...
...and very strong light across the entire board, you really can't ask a...
...softbox who do anything better than what this does.
So you can modify the amount of light you receive from this soft box by using the two diffusers ...
There is inner diffuser which goes on with the snap button function and then there's also the...
...outside diffuser which just attaches really simply with a Velcro strip.
To make everything even easier there is a zip side panel...
...from which you can get into the inside of the softbox, so when I...
...first received this Zeppelin Para-59 I was a little bit overwhelmed by the size of it...
...considering that I had to build it myself...
...however it actually wasn't that hard to assemble.
I managed it all by myself and under 30 minutes.
I'm quite proud of that.
When I was putting it together I did notice that it was easier to assemble...
...than most other soft boxes because there's a little bit of movement in the...
...bars, in the bars that go around the edge of it so it made slotting it...
...all together really easy, however it is still really, really strong. I could tell...
...by it that the stitching from which the bars go into and the metal surround that...
...goes on to the light everything is really, really high quality and sturdy so...
...I wouldn't really have any trust problems with this if I was the type...
...of photographer that needed to take it down at the end of each day and move from...
...location to location. I probably wouldn't I probably leave this up in my main...
...studio and just keep it there as my main, main, main light. If I was the kind of...
...photographer, which I am, that goes from location to location, I might be more...
...inclined to look at the Rapid Box Octa XL.
This soft box is perfect for photographers, like me, who go to location, location, location during the day...
...so, I think it'll be perfect going into, say somebody's office space or even doing a..
...portrait in a coffee shop somewhere where you don't have a lot of space and...
...you need to be in and out really, really quickly.
The great thing about these is that they go up in an...
...instant almost just as quick as an umberlla does come down just as quick too.
You will also have a lot of versatility in terms of the amount of light that you get from these.
You can snap on an inner diffuser ring, attached by Velcro an outer...
...diffuser ring. You can even buy a separate deflector plate and use it...
...almost like a beauty dish light source. The Rapid Box range is perfect as they...
...fold up really, really, neatly and fit into their own carry case, which makes it..
...the perfect choice for when I'm going on location abroad all I get to bring with...
...me is my carry-on luggage. Overall both of these soft boxes are really strong...
...sturdy, well-built, quite dependable and very versatile in the amount of light...
...that you can get from them.
To be fair I think they're a really reasonable price too. I've made the mistake very recently...
...of buying a cheaper end soft box that has ripped within a couple...
...of months. Before I also bought one that was just too hard to assemble so I didnt bother.
These guys though very, very easy to assemble the rRapid Box goes...
...up and down in a flash and the Zeppelin it's just so easy , I can't get over it...
...but I probably wouldn't be able to justify having something so large in my...
...studio if I had a slightly larger studio though I would totally invest in this...
...because it is really all you need for group portraits.
The Rapid Box Octa XL though, I am quite keen to add that to my portable lighting kit.
Thanks for joining me today I hope you enjoyed this product overview if you'd like to see...
...more videos then subscribe to the Adorama YouTube channel. If you'd like to brush up on your...
...photography skills then check out the Adorama Learning Center.
Thanks I'm going to see you again real soon.
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